Lawrence Intermediate School Unveils Student Leadership Program Designed to Help the School Become "Greener"

Last week, 24 sixth graders at Lawrence Intermediate School enthusiastically announced a new recycling program at the school through the national Leaders for the Future program conducted by Bonstingl Leadership Development headquartered in Columbia, Md.

John Jay Bonstingl, creator of the nationally-acclaimed program, said he chose Lawrence Intermediate School to be the first school in New Jersey to participate in this program "because of its strong national reputation for leadership."

Bonstingl came to Lawrence Intermediate School on Jan. 18 and 19 to conduct an intensive and highly-interactive two-day leadership workshopwith the 24 students. He returned last Monday, March 14, for a special school-wide assembly in which student teams announced their final projects.

As part of the workshop, student participants explored what it takes to be a true leader and teammate. They learned tools and skills to create an original service project to "make their good schools even better." These skills will also be useful to young people as they enter the increasingly competitive world of work, according to Bonstingl.

Student teams launched a new student-led service learning campaign designed to make Lawrence Intermediate School a "greener" school by enlisting all of their peers and the staff in a school-wide recycling competition.

As the students announced during Monday’s assembly, each class will be graded on the students’ recycling skills by the Leaders of the Future program members. Each classroom will earn points for putting the right materials in each of three buckets: one for paper; one for juice pouches, chip bags and water bottles; and the third for regular trash.

The class that earns the most points for correctly recycling will earn an ice cream party. The competition will run through the rest of the school year with winning classes being announced on a monthly basis. In the case of a tie, each class will earn an ice cream party. This announcement generated a lot of excitement in the school cafeteria.

The students also announced a partnership between the school and TerraCycle. The Trenton-based company will recycle the juice pouches and chip bags collected by the students and will donate to the school 2 cents for each pouch and bag. With 900 students in the school, that can quickly add up to some extra money, which the school hopes to use to buy new reusable plastic lunch trays rather than throwing away hundreds of Styrofoam trays every day at lunch.

Bonstingl, nicknamed "Beanstalk" by the students, said "it is up to you to decide what kind of leader you want to be. I am so proud of our leaders here today."

Now in its 14th year, Leaders for the Future is conducted throughout the United States with underwriting from State Farm insurance company.

Bonstingl said he created Leaders for the Future based on his 17 years' experience as a classroom teacher and the research he did for his book "Schools of Quality,” which has sold more than a quarter-million copies.

Lawrence Intermediate School teachers David Boggs and Jessica Heller coordinated the Leaders for the Future program at the school, with direction from Principal Jonathan Dauber and Vice Principal David Adam.

Boggs and Heller, with Bonstingl, shared their Leaders for the Future experiences with educators from around the state during the New Jersey Alliance for Social, Emotional, and Character Development’s annual conference held at Rider University on March 15.